Collective Addition

Here are some photos of the 'Collective Addition' activity.
* I took pictures with the same group, from two different times - so the children are not in the same spot on the mat, which may be a bit confusing....  They don't switch spots during one equation, but if they repeat the activity I encourage them to sit in a new spot.

This is usually presented with 3 children.  We set up the activity with three sets of small number cards (ones, tens and hundreds) and one set of large number cards (ones, tens, hundreds and one thousand).
Also on the shelf is our 'bank' of wooden single unit cubes, ten-bars, hundred squares and a one thousand cube.

I place number cards on each child's tray and she or he goes to the bank and gets that amount of wooden blocks.



The children join me at a mat where I help them read their 3 digit number and they place it on the mat.

Then all the wooden blocks are placed in a bowl together.

The child on the farthest right (my left) starts counting all the single units.  When he gets to 10, he takes them to the bank to exchange it for a 10 bar.  He resumes counting the units and gets the large number card that represents how many units are left.  

M4H04452 from Stefanie Mendoza on Vimeo.

The middle child counts the tens in the same way.  And the last child counts the hundreds.
I place the large number cards under the small sets and we read the equation.

This activity gives such a wonderful impression of the nature of addition - two or more numbers coming together to form one larger number.